Looking into pipes...

[OC Richard]

Just to show what some of the makers I mentioned have been up to...

... a couple MacLellan sets, first in blackwood, then his reproduction of an early c1800 set, in Cocobolo:





Here's some Douglas MacPherson pipes, first a bling set in blackwood then a couple interesting sets in Mopane:







Here's a nice set by the American maker Mark Cushing. I love the elegant button mounts:



Here's a couple nice sets by Dunbar, my full aluminum set, and a set I used to have with palm nut "ivory" mounts. Palm nut looks great, as it's a natural material with all sorts of cool varigation in it.





And here's a lovely closeup of an Atherton set using the Palm Nut "ivory" mounts:

[ohiopiper]

Listen to the pipes you are considering. Every maker has a slightly different proportion to the pipes and this gives a slightly different sound. I'd base a pipe purchase on 75 percent drone sound and 25 percent chanter. Chanters are 200 bucks tops. If you play in a band and solo, you'll own at least two anyway.

Ask owners of potential pipes what ease or difficulty they had reeding the pipes. Some pipes can have anything slapped into them and play fine. Others have to be reeded on second Tuesdays under a full moon.

A "basic" pipe from a maker sounds the same as a "top shelf" pipe of the same material from the same maker. A set of AB0 will sound the same as a set of AB99 (if they made such a costly thing). Dunbar P1 sounds exactly like a Dunbar P4.